Rees Jones to receive GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award

Widely respected golf course architect Rees Jones has been selected to receive the 2004 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). The award presentation will take place at the GCSAA Dinner Show, Saturday, Feb. 14, during the association’s 75th International Golf Course Conference and Show, Feb. 9-14, in San Diego.

GCSAA’s most prestigious honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, is presented each year to an individual who “through a continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf has helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” Morris (1821-1908) was greenkeeper and golf professional at the St. Andrews Links Trust Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland; a four-time winner of the British Open (1861, ’62, ’64 and ’67); and ranked as one of the top links designers of the 19th century.
Jones, a member and past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), has designed or renovated more than 100 courses throughout his career, many of which are widely regarded as among the very best in the world. His designs include Pinehurst No. 7, Haig Point Club, Nantucket Golf Club, Ocean Forest Golf Club, Atlantic Golf Club, Sandpines Golf Club and England’s Oxfordshire Golf Club.

Nicknamed “The Open Doctor” for his highly acclaimed work remodeling several U.S. Open courses, including Bethpage Black, Torrey Pines, The Country Club at Brookline, Hazeltine National, Baltusrol, Congressional and Pinehurst No. 2, Jones is the first second-generation Old Tom Morris Award recipient since the award was created in 1983. His father, the late Robert Trent Jones Sr., received the award in 1987.